Abstract
This research was conducted to determine if the Caribbean fruit fly would infest green mangoes under laboratory conditions and naturally in the orchard. Green mango fruits were collected from mango orchards during the mango harvest season. Mangoes were held to find any Caribbean fruit fly infestations. Fruit infestations were also done in the laboratory using laboratory-reared flies. Fruit fly populations were presumed present in the orchards in 1995 and 1996, and we recorded their presence in 2002 in mango and a nearby guava orchard. No larvae emerged from any of 2,598 green 'Tommy Atkins' mangoes collected from the orchards in 1995 and 1996, or 1,184 green 'Keitt' mangoes collected in 2002 from the orchards. No larvae emerged from 470 mangoes collected at packinghouses in Homestead, Florida, in 2002 supporting nonhost status under natural conditions. Laboratory cage infestation data showed a very low (1.22 larvae per fruit in 1995, 0.01 larvae per fruit in 1996, 0.02 larvae per fruit in 2002) rate of larval emergence under very high fly population pressure and compared to positive controls, indicating that the fruit is a poor host conditionally. Because no larvae were found in any of the orchard collected samples in 1995, 1996, or 2002, and the laboratory cage infestation tests produced very low infestations, it was concluded that green 'Tommy Atkins' and 'Keitt' mangoes have a low likelihood of being a pathway of introduction for Caribbean fruit fly.
